The stand-by situation of the first week of the Dubai Itu confernece forecasted a difficult solution of the meeting organized by the United Nations in order to modify  the tlc  International agreement and, more in general, the regulation of the Internet. In the end of the conference, that took place in Dubai, between 3 and 14 December, these are the main results:

- The Un approved an agreement with 77 votes in favour and 33 against;

- 89 Countries – among them China, Russia, Brazil and Saudi Arabia – signed the new treaty;

- 55 Countries didn’t sign the treaty. Among them Usa, Canada, United Kingdom. They accused the treaty to be against the Internet freedom and decided to abandon the meeting.

- Other Countries, including Italy, remained in stand-by, waiting to make a choice.

In the end, the Conference has been a substantial “flop”.

First of all the new treaty has been judged damaging to the internet freedom, despite Hamadoun Touré (Itu  Secretary General) reassurances. Moreover the treaty can have different interpretations, possibly leading to Countries ratifying the treaty through different applications.

According to many analists the “Internet war” has become a geopolitical affaire within a new “cold war”. Countries will be divided in two blocks depending on whether they
did or did not sign the treaty, which basically gives Governments more power in dealing with matters concerning the Internet.

And this worries Countries like US that strongly aim to maintain the multistakeholders approach. Likewise, obviously, Google that declared  to be “on the side of those who reject the Treaty, in favour of a free and open Internet.” Same position also for Robert Mc Dowell, Commissioner at the FCC – Federal Communications Commission “only an Internet isolated from governative’s regulamentations don’t undermine the success of the Internet governance based on the multistakeholder’s model”.

Even if it’s clear, on the one hand, that US tries to protect their own interests, it’s even more clear, on the other hand, that there will not be a shared treaty for tlc and the Internet.

The treaty will become law by 2015 so, in the next 2 years many thing could change. The next Itu meeting will be held in South Corea in 2014.